IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Excellent article by Scott Crow that strikes a very good balance: without being pacifistic, also not glorifying violence. As the people/person from RR says, "There is no social peace. We are in the class war and we are loosing it. We should take back our social power. We believe that only mass social movement will bring the revolution" That is all true. But tell me: how is talking about armed struggle in the netherlands, at this point in time, is going to bring any of that closer? You show zero arguments. All activist groups who have achieved anything at all in the netherlands in recent times, do not have armed struggle as their primary focus, but instead focus on community building and non-violent forms of activism. Tell me, which activist groups is RR inspired by, and what have they achieved in which kind of context and how does that compare to the netherlands in 2021? Or are you such superior revolutionaries that you don't need any inspiration?

Are there other times and places where activists have used armed struggle justified and succesfully? Sure. But they did that after building a community, not before. The Netherlands is in that way totally incomparable to Palestine, Northern Ireland or the Basque country, where activist groups have millions of people who morally support them, hundreds of thousands who go to demonstrations, and thousands of people who are themselves active. In the netherlands, the average demonstration currently gets a few 100 visitors, and a few dozens if its a little more revolutionary. Lets multiply those numbers by 100 or 1000 before we start talking about armed struggle, if you want to have any chance of successs at all, shall we? Instead, read Scrott Crows article and do as the Black Panthers did. At this point, you would probably be more right to start clinic or food distribution. Its what people actually need and are asking for, it will be a lot more effective, and will help to build a support network for future struggles. Locally, take an example in the anti-racist movement: this summer they had a demonstration with 60.000 visitors, have 100.000's people who morally and financially support them¸ and are building all kinds of instititutions that are already having a lasting impact in our society. Now that is base to build upon, maybe even community self-defence.

All RR is going to achieve right now, is that you are going to get yourself in jail or shot dead. If that is still what you want for yourself, that is up to you.Unfortunately, as other people in the comments to your own article have pointed out, you are also going to be used for a right-wing media frenzy to delegitimize all other left-wing activism, and to hurt and proscecute the few other activist groups and activist infrastructure we have here, who are achieving things (and who have the full right to think differently from you about the usefullness and practicess of community self-defence). This will happen whether you like it or not, while scaring away a lot of potential supporters, and adding at most some dudes with a Rambo-complex. And this is especially true when looking at your poor use of security culture. So please, don't do this, if not for yourself, then for others.